Howard Nathenson

Howard Nathenson, b. 1940, Denver, Colorado, is a painter and a photographer. He received a BFA in painting from the University of Denver and an MFA in painting from the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught drawing, painting, and photography at The University of California, Berkeley; California State College, Los Angeles; William Paterson University, Paterson, New Jersey; and Keane College, Newark, New Jersey.

Nathenson specializes in oil paintings and drawings that feature imagery from landscapes such as skies, clouds, and trees. He is continually preoccupied with clouds, which he feels are symbolic and create a mood. “I look upon an open landscape scene as a stage where there is continual drama unfolding.” Nathenson’s early work consisted of large, abstract stained paintings influenced by the color field painting of the 1960s and 70s. Currently, he paints in oils and has added “an element of realism, although not photographic, and sometimes entirely invented.”

Nathenson has displayed his work in numerous states, including at exhibitions in California, New York City and New Jersey. His paintings were shown in the Whitney Annual and the “Extraordinary Images” exhibition at the Whitney Museum. Nathenson’s landscape vignette drawings were shown at Artist’s Space in New York City, and his still life black and white photograph series “Chiaroscuro” was shown at the Morris Museum, Morristown New Jersey. Nathenson was awarded a New Jersey State Fellowship for the Arts, in photography, and served on the Fellowship’s selection committee the following year. His work is in the collection of the Neuberger Museum, The Brodsky Museum at SUNY, The Bergen Museum, The University of Denver and many private and public collections.